Jan 31, 2015

Oh no... they are actually going with this and as expected, Melissa McCarthy is in it... I also realized that she is related to Jenny McCarthy... Remember her? She used to be on MTV's Singled Out, before she left to have her own show...

She wasn't that funny to be honest, but everyone gave her a pass because she was hot and her playmate background made her fap fodder to many young men watching MTV in the 90s.

So, now I can understand Melissa McCarthy a bit better. She's pretty much using Jenny's handbook to comedy but now with fat jokes. Still, she is not funny...

Kristen Wiig, I can tolerate. She can be funny AT TIMES, but at other times, eh, not so much. So she's a bit of a "wild card" here.

The third (SJW friendly gimmick) buster is Kate McKinnon who I only know for her Justin Bieber impression...

The fourth SJWFG Buster is Leslie Jones... whose work I'm very unfamiliar, aside a few recent SNL sketches and all I've seen is her playing a "Loud ghetto black lady" stereotype.

So, they got a token black lady... This got to make this remake that according to Feig himself:

We want to have fun with giving nods to what came before, but we don’t want to be bound by it because Katie and I already have talked at length and we have really fun ideas for things. But we want to tell the stories that we would like to tell, which means we want to tell the character arcs that we want to tell, which means we want to start with some of our characters in a different place or with different personalities and things they have to overcome and learn through the experience of this first movie.

somewhat closer to the original, even if they are discarding most of the original movie. So, what's the point?

Now, I must once again point out that being against this movie is not any of the following:-sexist-misogynistic.

Being in favor of this movie IS Sexist! Think about it: What reason has Feig given to remake Ghostbusters with women other than he wants to do Ghostbusters with women?Where's the equality here? They just Rule 63'd the Male Busters.Wiig is the EgonJones is the WinstonMcCarthy is the Peter (You know she WILL get slimed, because Fat people getting hurt = Comedy gold... Betting she'll slip and fall with the slime and will need help to get up, or she'll get stuck on the firehouse's pole.)McKinnon the Ray

Sure, they're likely not to be named after the original Busters, but you get the idea. The dislike this project is getting is mostly Fieg's fault, because right from the start, before having any story ideas or anything he began with the "Let's turn these male characters into women" gimmick. As soon as Feig was mentioned to be the director, the name Melissa McCarthy popped into everyone's minds... Followed by this thought:

Now, the official cast confirmed all the fears people had. McCarthy + Wiig = almost Bridesmaids 2?McCarthy gets a lot of flak due to her comedic styling.

to Feig, THIS is gold! To me it's a sad attempt at being funny that looks a bit too forced.Which is the reason why many are turned off by McCarthy as a comedienne. Personally, Sony should just let this (and Spider-Man) go.

Jan 30, 2015

So Barbie is now a super heroine called Super Sparkle... (Now I know what I can call the son of Kal-El and Princess Twilight Sparkle) How is she ripping off She-Ra aside the name?Well, Super Sparkle spreads her arms and her sparkly cape opens and sparkles...

She-Ra did it first, in the eighties... Holy crap! there's a MOVIE!?

OK, Trank's Chronicle 2 may be a bit better than this thing... I don't know but Barbie looks a bit deranged on this. Worst part is that it's coming to theaters?

What I mean is, Mattel already OWNS a Superhero line for girls...

And the whole:

Girls want to be strong and empowering, but the difference is, they don't want to defeat the evil. They want to work as a team, and convert that evil enemy to their friend.

can be used on PoP since that was pretty much the same BS approach they had in the 80s toyline.Why try to use Barbie, who is loaded with a bunch of "issues" like being a moronic computer engineer who has no idea how computers work. Or the whole Body issues complaints from people like the Loathsome Media Critic who shall not be named nor her Glorified YTP sidekick.

It also brings back She-Ra, not to mention Barbie Sized She-Ra dolls, which would be an interesting collectible... A lot better than Skeletot. Heck! the whole Barbie as She-Ra could start with Barbie being an actress who plays the role of Adora on the Princess of Power movie who then gets the REAL She-Ra Powers and does stuff in our world to protect us from the Hordeswomen on Earth.Boom!

But Mattel wants to push Barbie unto a generation that doesn't really care about Barbie. Even Monster High began to lose its luster and appeal. Right now the real target audience is the Adult Collector. (and I cannot make an opinion on How Mattel treats the adult Barbie Collectors because I can't enter the BC Club.) I'm stuck with the Matty Collector club... because of He-Man and his sister...

They have an actual Female Superhero property that they own and they do not use it. WHY? WHY?WHY!?
But I'm no Mattel employee and even those guys don't have the answer.

Before I get on with the not really a review, but more of a showcase; I need to point something out.

Shapeways NEEDS to improve their shipping options to Puerto Rico. While UPS is a nifty option, having a Post Office as my only shipping Address can be a bit of a bitch to get my items...

Now unto the items:

I'll remove that sprue once I get the chain!!

I'll start with the ninja nunchucks, because these are very straight forward. These are my plan A to "Fix" some issues with Ninjor Ninja Warrior coming soon for MOTUC Subscribers. The figure has nunchucks, just like we remember, but they are one piece of soft plastic. Think most of the Playmates Michelangelo nunchuks kind of thing. These very inexpensive set allows you to fix that. There is an option that has the chain sculpted in 3D plastic, so you don't have to get your own chain.
I got it in black plastic to avoid the need to paint the nunchuck and cause some paint to stick to the figure's hands... especially a figure with RED Gloves. So, I got a set of chucks. I need to get the chain for it though. Also, if you can get a small ball and add an eye hook to it you could make a pair of chain whips out of the ninja chucks without chain... But this will wait on for a little bit since Ninja Warrior won't be here until Early March.

Hey! These are supposed to be Gunmetal black!

Now, I'll take on the most expensive item in the set, because it's also two pieces.
Trap Jaw's 200X Armor. I mean, it's no secret that I prefer the 200X Designs in most cases for MOTUC. Some of my 200X-ized MOTUC have made it to multiple reviews. Also, the reason why I'm super excited for February's items... (Ninjor will donate Jitsu the 200X loincloth and a 200X He-Man and Hiss will join the shelf...) So, I don't need to explain this armor too much... Hopefully sometime in the future, DJ Force can figure out a way to make Trap Jaw's 200X Weapons in MOTUC Scale and Style to complete the look. I have to admire the cleverness of how this works!

TJ: "I'm 200X-ized and ready to kick ass!"
Rammy:"Uh! You need a black MEF crotch to be 200X-ized"
TJ:"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFU-!"

The Shoulderpad clips on the Actual right Shoulder while the shield clips on to the mecharm! No glue or other frankensteining is required! Now, I have to say this: If you can, go straight for the black plastic one. It's a bit more expensive and not polished, but you won't have to paint much.
Once you paint it, it looks AMAZING!! I later went in with a second coat of gloss black with a bit of metallic black mixed in to make it pop!I'd recommend a semi-gloss clear coat if you want to make it match the completed toy look.

The last item is the Horde Leader Sword. This one has a REALLY LONG Explanation.In the Standor Review, I did make some crude drawings showing ideas for weapons. So, a long time ago I had made a crude drawing on an idea for a Horde Sword... Mostly to showcase the shape and color palette. I was able to find a copy of the original drawing that you can see on the left. (I just noticed that the blade is a bit off-center. Bugging me a lot now...) The Horde Insignia was lacking the details on purpose. I just made the shape of the insignia as a placeholder.

a WHITE Sword in one go!? It took *snort*
3 Tries for Mattel to give me a white
*snort* Crossbow and I had to get a cherry clone
in order to get it!

The design was improved A LOT by Chris. You can see the added details on the Middle prong and how elegant the blade looks now. Fitting for an evil ruler.
The improved sword was made in 3D by Evil Mike and is available to everybody via his Shapeways shop.

The sword is TECHNICALLY SPEAKING a Trident. The inspiration for Hordak having a Trident came from the Classic imagery of the devil with his Pitchfork. Since, the Horde is basically the BIG Evil in MOTU... (not counting UNO here.), then the pitchfork made sense.

Let's take a look at the three blades once more. The two thinner ones look a bit fang like. Almost like Vampire fangs, right? The third prong is the bat's tongue. The handle is meant to mimic the Hordak Staff Handle. The Handguard is quite obvious. Horde Sword and no Horde Handguard would be wrong.

That was the ORIGINAL Reasoning behind the original design which was mostly the crude shape of it and the palette. Chris Refined the look and embellished the blade making it a regal weapon for the Ruthless (sometimes Evil) Leader of the Evil Horde.

There is an extra aspect that I hadn't noticed. The shape of the whole thing...
It's basically BOTH Versions of the vintage Power Sword...

Ah *snort* the Twins of Power! I have a sword too!

The Original look and the 200X Pitch where Skeletor had both halves of the sword and He-Man needed a Techno Sword.

Now to explain the color choices on my Horde Blade.
The Handle is mimicking the Staff. The red bat used the last bit of dark red that I had. The middle prong is in light Crimson with a metallic rust color (mix of copper and crimson) which is inspired by the whole Power Sword idea mentioned a bit early. Of course you can paint it in any color scheme that you like.

Now, at the end of the day, the whole 3D printed item business is a tad too expensive when factoring in the shipping costs. These pieces are not toys and are not meant to be played with. They are a bit on the Fragile side, so they might break if handled too roughly. As display pieces they are AMAZEBALLS!! I mean, just look at them. They can help to spice up some displays. Not to mention the other stuff that I did not buy. IF Shapeways figures out that USPS CAN deliver to PO Boxes in Puerto Rico, then I may be ordering a lot more from the various MOTUC Shapeways artists.

Jan 27, 2015

I have to do something extraordinary, so I’m going to do the
Fantastic Four!

So, let’s talk Marvel’s first family.
In 1994 Roger Corman, yes THAT Roger Corman made a Fantastic Four Movie:

I saw that movie in 2002 when I rented it from a small comic book store that
dabbled in other things. The movie was in the “behind the curtain section” you
know… where you could get a lot of Japanese items that could only leave the
store in non-descriptive brown paper bags. Among the other Adult Animated
movies (involving Japanese schoolgirls and tentacles), there was a single VHS on a Standard Maxell cardboard box. On it there
was a piece of Masking tape with the words “Los Cuatro Fantásticos: La película
”. 3 hours later I was pleasantly surprised. It was a bad movie, but for a
B-Movie, it was pretty good. (Not that the movie lasts three hours. It's the distance on foot between the Comic book store and my place followed by the movie's runtime.)

3 years later I got to see the First Official Fantastic Four Movie.

I was mostly disappointed. I Loathed the
plot (especially the part where they rip off Spider-Man’s Norman Osborn sub
plot.) and Jessica Alba… How can I HATE Jessica Alba? It’s not easy. I don’t
hate her per se. It’s just that she was horribly miscast as Sue Storm. They
should have gone with Elisha Cuthbert (from 24) as the rumors before Ms. Alba
was cast. I was a bit disappointed in Julian McMahon as Doom, but it mostly
stemmed from the script being underwhelming. The only TRUE PERFECT choices in
casting where Chris Evans as Johnny Storm and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm. I
have to say that the trailer DID excite me enough to go to the cinema and watch
it.

Then came Rise of the Silver Surfer and the less we talk about that movie, the
better. Now we’re dealing with Chronicle 2: Now with Marvel Character names! As
you can see from the previous sentence, I already have low hopes in the Josh
Trank’s Fantastic Four. Then the casting choices were revealed…
I’m completely uncomfortable with Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch. It
seems very racist to have the black guy light himself on fire. It’s almost as
if no one thought this through. I’ve nothing against Michael B. Jordan, as an
actor. It’s just that having him play THAT SPECIFIC ROLE is a bit racist,
because of the lighting himself on fire part. I could have accepted a Black
Reed Richards, as the Leader of the group but , the casting people chose poorly.
Then having Doctor Doom be an angry Blogger pissed me off and sealed this movie
as an unpolishable turd.
Now with that said, I’ve taken a look at the trailer…

I’m unimpressed. I watched it again and I got nothing.

I mean, the Morgan Freeman Wannabe narrator giving this super important speech
about Humanity, with a bunch of images of the soon to be Fantastic In Name Only
Four Chronicle 2. It almost seems as if they’re ASHAMED of showing the
Fantastic Four and what they can do. It even depressed me a little bit. No sense of hope, wonder or adventure... the things that one should feel with a movie based on Marvel's First Family!! It's not there! I gotta say, I laughed at the mention of the whole: from the studio that brought you X-Men:DoFP... It's like they;re trying to make us forget that this is the very same studio that brought us: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-3: the Last Stand, Fantastic Four (2005) AND Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer! just sayin'!

Jan 26, 2015

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. Between them over 30 years of Special Effects experience and 12 years of Mythbusting!
Well, this new season: 2015 has been Shark Jumpingtastic... Cartoons, movies, and now Videogame Myths!!

Yes, they are doing a DOOM Special... I will very likely watch it, but seriously, we're going to verify if a character in a fictional world could carry around the inventory carried in the game in real life and have the same maneuverability as in the game.
(Chainsaw, Gun, 2 Shotguns, Gatling gun, Rocket Launcher, the Fictional Plasma Rifle and BFG-9000.)
Really? We've reached the point that Mythbusters is trying to see if videogame logic works in real life? I'm afraid we may be going downhill.

Oh Holy crap! This bit of news is a bit SHOCKING!! Mattel's CEO resigned.
Then the news has some info about Mattel not doing well. Having problems meeting expectations, Barbie not selling as well, having to let Frozen (and the Disney stuff) go to Hasbro. Not to mention the whole DC toys fiasco with the new toys peg warming. Not going to touch the disaster that is Max Steel: Son of Big Jim...

The part of me that is a bit worried is obviously the part of me that is a devoted Mattel customer who religiously buys Masters of the Universe.

Currently, I don't KNOW what will happen with MOTU after this, but I want to stay positive... I mean it's a bit scary when the Big Guy jumps ship...

Jan 25, 2015

Y'all are aware of my dislike of Disney Channel's show, Jessie. Yes, I admit that I did enjoy the Ultimate Spider-Man crossover with Jessie, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Well, this little bit of news showed on a couple of sites I visit.

Cameron Boyce, who plays Luke on Jessie is getting a new show. then there's the fact that Jessie is on its fourth Season. Disney Channel shows RARELY last longer than 4 seasons. (This 4 season rule scares me for a different reason... GMW) The show's premise is that Boyce is playing a Retired "professional gamer" who has to deal with living a normal life after getting a Thumb Injury that kicks him out of the "Pro Circuit". He visualizes life as a videogame as a coping mechanism.

I find this show incredibly scary. First of all, the whole "Visualizing life as a videogame to cope with his situations" is very pernicious... To quote a loathsome "media critic", but back on topic. Gamers have been getting a bad rap thanks to the whole Gamergate debacle. No, it's not about Misogynistic Virgin Neckbeards harassing women online from their basements. It's more about people getting fed up with the bullcrap going on in gaming Journalism for some years. (The incident with the "indie game developer" was basically the Straw that broke the camel's back.) But that's a long story that I'm not currently interested in dealing with. So I'll just say: Don't listen and believe, but try to do your best to fact check. Now back to the topic once again. Gamers have had a horrible reputation for the last 20 years. Back then it was Jack Thompson complaining about violence, today we have . Now we have hipsters recycling the Thompson rants and adding sexism to the list of evils. Now going back to the Jack Thompson angle.

If this show uses the idea that the main character sees life as a videogame to "cope" with his situations, then it's perpetuating another bad rap that gamers get. They can't distinguish between real life and fantasy. Pretty much what Jack tried to convince people of.

Here's a pair of quotes that Executive Vice President of Original Programming at Disney Channels Worldwide Adam Bonnett said:

"With the popularity of video games and electronic sports, we're thrilled to give our audience a new series that spotlights one of their biggest passions and features fan-favorite star Cameron Boyce,"

If that sounded like words from a person who is REALLY out of touch with videogame culture, then you are likely to be correct.

"We are bringing the video game universe to life and giving our popular multi-camera series a fresh, new twist by integrating gaming visual effects into each episode."

Oh no... This is just another excuse to try and make one of those weird "live action with cartoon elements hybrid shows" as seen with the failed Cartoon Network show out of Jimmy's head and Disney's Kirby Buckets...

The worst part is the Title of the show: The Gamer's guide to pretty much everything."

Basically, take one bad Disney Channel Comedy show, then make the character be the character played by the late Jonathan Brandis in Sidekicks, but instead of having Chuck Norris fantasies with Generic videogames that will make this look like a Masterpiece...

Before Reboot fans get angry at me, you have to accept that the animation has not aged well.

Jan 24, 2015

The new season of Mythbusters started a while back and now I was able to see more than one episode. (Indiana Jones Special, A-Team Special) I missed out on The Simpsons Special...See the trend? It's all about _____Special... Just like when they were on a bit of a rut and still had Kari, Tory, and McShill.

My thoughts on these new episodes?
It's pretty much the same format as the later episodes with the Build Team, minus the Build Team.
Now with more time for Adam's cosplay antics and Hyneman's painful reactions to them.On a more positive note, there's more room for some decent trivia tidbits and a bit of more sciency explanations that were missing from later Mythbusters episodes.

So, basically, the showrunners are simply showing how Unnecessary the Build Team's role on the show was. It may feel like a bit of a dick move to some, but in a way the showrunners are kinda right.

While I'm not trying to dismiss the skills that the Build Team has, we have to accept that Kari was mostly there as eye candy. Tory was playing the role of Mini-Adam...

And Grant, well... He used to be a Chibi Hyneman... So, for a while, in the last few years, the Build Team got a bit of prominence and back in 2010 I found it a bit annoying. (To the point of wanting Mythbusters to be cancelled if necessary)

My main gripe with these episodes (ever since the last few years) are the focus on ____ Specials.They kinda turn to recreating scenes from movies or shows and less on Urban Legends that need to be verified. Seriously, I do not need a Mythbusters: My Little Pony special where Adam and Jamie try to recreate the Sonic Rainboom or something.

Jan 23, 2015

As much as I praise Hideo Kojima's work, except when I'm making fun of his Subtlety in his anti-nuke message; he is pissing me off. We ARE in 2015!! MOTUC is ending, My Lizard Man is currently in Jacksonville and I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHEN METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN IS COMING!!!

That's Next Month!! I- I can't believe this!? If true, It's about damn time! But for now I'm taking this as the rumor it is. Supposedly, on the 31st, there will be some sort of game show in Japan where Hideo will finally give out some new info. I've been waiting for this game for quite a while... I am afraid that Mortal Kombat X will show up before we even get the Phantom Pain...

Now here's the infamous piece by Sviridov that allegedly was copied by TAPPY and eliminated the MGS theme out of the Timeline...

I hear some eerie similarities, but unfortunately the 20+ year difference between this and Tappy's piece makes it look bad for the MGS theme... It's not like the Remington Steele theme and He-Man theme similarities where the Similarities could be chalked up to coincidence...

Remember the last X-Men movie, where they soft-rebooted the franchise? The one that had this scene after the credits and made a lot of Marvel Zombies squeal with delight? Which is weird, since this is a Marvel movie made by Fox...

Yes, we got the terrible news that Male Megan Fox is supposedly playing the role of Remy LeBeau.

The dick is going to be played by Tye Sheridan... Basically an unknown actor, which is good. He has no stigma of awful roles like the rumored Gambit.

Well, I, uh... not going to make any more references to that Horrible line in this rant, but the girl who will play Storm is: Alexandra Shipp! She has appeared on TV: Switched at Birth, House of Anubis, Victorious, Awkward. She was also on Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakuel and she replaced Zendaya in the role of Aaliyah for the Lifetime tv movie Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B.

Last but not least the object of Cyclops' affections.

This is how Cyclops sees her.

Another Westerosi export. Sophie Turner, better known to a lot of people as the most annoying Stark and biggest damsel in distress in all of the seven kingdoms... Sansa Stark.

I'm a bit curious about this. To be honest, I don't care about Storm or Cyke's casting choices.

I'm a bit intrigued about casting Sophie Turner as Jean. Obviously my obsessive watching of the HBO series based on the books by George "I always look for any excuse to not finish the last two books of a series that the first book was published in 1996" R.R. Martin. I've not seen anything with Sophie Turner aside Sansa, so I'm basically used to see her playing a seemingly useless character. Which in a way kinda works for Jean Grey, since she is pretty much useless until the Phoenix Saga. That is a bit weird, having Jean Grey as useless, since she:-Has Telepathy, like Charles Xavier, but with Better Mobility. (I went there)-Telekinesis, which is a useful power.Then why in the hell is she so useless? (Too much power so she gets nerfed... a lot!)

Jan 21, 2015

I wouldn't call myself a huge Venom fan... But when people say Venom, the first thing I think of is:

Venom, as drawn by Mark Bagley. (OK I also like Todd McFarlane's Venom, even if it lacks the Miley Tongue)

Throughout the years we had Venom acting like an "Anti-Spidey" The whole Lethal Protector and becoming an occasional threat to Parker.

The bonding of the Overly Attached Symbiote to Eddie Brock was what made Venom popular in the 90s... Then again, the 90s were the Era of EXTREEEEEEEEEEEME! With jackets over spandex and a buttload of clones for Parker.

Then came the New Millenium. Marvel wasn't sure what they were doing with a lot of stuff... Especially the Spider-Stuff. Eddie Brock was dying of Cancer and Scorpion ended up with the Symbiote suit giving us Scorpnom!

To be fair, one of the alleged original ideas for Venom was going to be that the Overly Attached Symbiote would have jumped from host to host while trying its best to be have Parker inside of it.

So, while it seems a bit cool to go to that idea. After 10+ years of Eddie + Symbiote = Venom... It's not that cool...

How can we ruin Venom even more?

Enter Avi Arad. One half of the Toy Biz team... The team that eventually gave us Marvel Legends in the last decade. Bunch of deals and legalese and Toy Biz eating up Marvel, or something. That was how we got the beginings of Marvel movies... Blade, Nic Cage acting as if his skull was on fire, and Tobey Man...

Enter the third movie and we end up with Topher Grace as Venom...
Once you get the idiot from That 70s show as one half of Venom, there is no turning back...
This is the lowest point in Venom's career. There is NO WAY they can top this awfulness.

Guardians of the Galaxy... No, not the movie with a Fast and Furious Groot, the Comics!!
There we got a brand new venom... Good thing that Marvel is doing a Crisis on Infinite Earths under the Secret Wars name...

Seriously, it looks like Ben 10's Cannonbolt, Spawn, and Bane were put in a blender. Then they painted the Venom Spider on it.

Here's the thing: This is Flash Thompson sporting a BRAND NEW SYMBIOTE that is not the Overly attached symbiote that bonded to Parker during the Original Secret Wars. The reason why that symbiote carries the white spider is BECAUSE of its obsession with Parker... If it's a new guy inside the symbiote and it's a new symbiote, then call him something else!

This is almost as stupid as Killing Doc Ock and downloading his brain into Peter Parker.

Jan 20, 2015

On Castle Grayskull that is... I now have no dumbass hole making the extra Pie Piece look stupid.I've bitched and moaned about the hole before. Even in the CG Review...
I said I was eyeing some alternatives for covers, but Shapeways has an issue with shipping to Puerto Rico. I'm testing a weird solution that Shapeways CS gave me. (UPS and USPS PO box addresses don't always agree.) That takes DJ Force's Cosmic Key Holder away from My Castle. (As well as other alternatives like He-Bro's Door shaped plug.) Now, I still have that dumbass hole and I can't do anything about it... Other than cover it myself!

OK. remember I'm not a super customizer, I'm more of a low level butcher.

Day 1:So, I took an index card and marked the hole by pushing the card against the edges. I cut a circle out of that and used it to mark a piece of thin Balsa wood in order to make the cover.

I made sure that the Circle was a bit smaller than the actual hole because I was going to add some Crayola Model Magic Clay that I had lying around. While it shrinks a little as it dries, I had to make sure that I was able to remove it from the hole IF I ever wanted to use the WR stand (or put another cover) Then I used Glue and Index card paper to reinforce the Balsa Wood piece. (It was starting to break in some places while cutting it.) I let that dry for a few hours.

Once the wood was dry, I put some brown Model Magic on it. Technically it's closer to terracotta, but that's not the point. Using a rolling pin (not a kitchen rolling pin, but one I have for non culinary stuff.) I made the ball of Model Magic spread and cover most of the Actual wood... to sculpt Fake Wood... Then I let that dry for a whole day. (I sped up the process a little bit with a hair dryer.) I used a toothpick to carve the wood grain, separate the planks, and create the nail holes.

Day 2:
Once the Wooden side was a lot dryer, with a second Hair Dryer attack, the "Wood" was hard... Which meant I could tackle the Other side. I mean, since I'm already doing a cover, let's do a reversible one! 2-for-1. Dammit! I should've said All for one so I could've used an I swear reference!

To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to do a Metallic Sewer cover for it, or if I was going to do a rocky cover. Ended up going for the stone cover, because it allows me a bit more wiggle room for error. So, I used the rest of my Model Magic Clay... Which is Purple... Need to get more but in White... As you can see on the WIP Pic, I am getting ahead of my self. Forgot to mention the Skull on it. That Skull was when I was hellbent on Building my own Grayskull (biting a lot more than I could chew.) but that skull was a remnant of that project. Basically a Halloween Decoration 5" Skeleton who got his face off... I glued the sucker down to the Sewer cover... Think about it Castle GraySKULL should have skulls as part of its Deco. Then I surrounded the Skull with a bunch of globs of Model Magic to make the rocks...
This needed to be left alone to dry before the next stage...

Day 3:
While the Wood got hard super fast, the stones weren't that lucky.While they have retained their shape , the insides are still soft. I noticed that when popping them out of the Pie Piece after taking the final pic... After the paint dried and all that. Why am I pointing this out? To make sure you avoid my mistake if you try this. I'm learning as I go and relaying my experiences as a novice.

So, painting: I started with the easy side. Wood!All I had to do was give it a black wash. The terracotta color + Black Wash was close enough to the wash on the wood outside Grayskull. BTW (a wash is paint diluted in water, so it can easily get in the crevices and not leave too much paint on the top. Yes, as you can see I messed up my wash when I started. Live and learn!) Now to be fair. I did not use plain black. I added some burnt sienna to the black so it wasn't BLACK BLACK... but I still messed up a little. I let that dry and sealed it... Mental note. Get a non-Glossy sealer.

I let that dry for an hour or so so the sealer wasn't sticky when I held the cover. Then I went to the Harder side. Rock!
As you could see on the WIP Pic, the colors don't match... Stop! Primer time! Or it would have if I had a primer. I did the next best thing I could think of. Paint everything in a base color, then go from there. I used Black, based on Mattel's adventures with Black Plastic! So, I painted the whole stoned side black... Let it dry and then I began mixing paints. I used a combination of colors that I obtained from other projects not related to toys. I mixed some Sky Blue with some Yellow and tan to produce a turquoise-like blue. If I had some Sea Foam green instead of having to mix blues and yellows it would have been a closer match. In the end, I like that it looks slightly different. Because it creates the look that there is a hole and this is covering it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I dry brushed the Blue paint on the skull and rocks. Once that dried, I added a mix of tan and yellow to some areas and I mixed some gray with the turquoise to try and mimic the color variations on the Castle itself. I let that dry, then sealed and let that dry once more. After all was dry, I took the pics.

Remember what I mentioned about it not hardening well. Now I'll leave the cover alone for a few weeks. That'll make it hard enough for usage... I hope. I don't know why I have a bit of a bad feeling about this... It's telling me that I should've used air dry clay.

We all know the enormous range that K-Stew has as an Actor.
But the idea that she'll play a Marvel Character scares me... Precisely for the same reason that she jokes about how people perceive her...

She will not be whatever character she is meant to play (assuming that she IS playing a character in the MCU), but she'll be the same one note, outkeanuing Keanu Reeves in wooden Acting, combined with her perennially constipated look which screams Kristen Stewart playing Kristen Stewart in Captain America 3.

There is only one character I think she could play, but Squirrel Girl fans will be mad at me... K-Stew should Totally play Squirrel Girl... Think about it K-Stew beating Thanos... Holy crap! I can't believe I now WANT K-Stew in the MCU... but only as Squirrel Girl!! If it's anyone else, no dice!

Jan 18, 2015

According to an answer to a recent What The Fans Want To Know (or the really long name for He-Man.org's Ask Matty) there is a possibility that Mattel COULD DO Karg.
Here's the question asked by user Penny Dreadful and Mattel's answer:

It is known that Mattel does not have the rights to character designs from the '87 movie for characters that were not made into figures during the 1980s. However, one of the major film characters, Karg, appeared prominently as a comic character in the US He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine which Mattel/DreamWorks owns the rights to. Would it be possible for Mattel to release a Karg figure based on his design from the magazine as opposed to his design from the film?

That is something we would have to re-evaluate. Before we could do the figure we’d have to re-examine our current rights and what can be done in the future. There are a lot of great figures that we could do, especially if there is a demand for them.

Mattel is re-evaluating their position with Karg. So there is a chance that he COULD GET MADE!! That is a WONDERFUL Thing!! If for some reason you have not seen The Movie, Karg is the Elizabethan Pirate/80s Hair Band Tina Turner looking dude... His importance is based on him being the LAST of the Movie's new Evil Warriors. The other two are Blade (who I own) and Saurod, who is coming in 2015.
Karg has been left behind before (Original MOTU Line) now the rights issue with WB (who bought the Canon Films library) is a bit tricky.
Now enter the loophole that Penny Dreadful mentioned...If you look at Movie Karg AND The Magazine story Karg; you'll notice many differences.
First, the colors. Movie Karg is sporting some golds and tans on his clothing with some accents in black. Magazine Karg is Mostly in black with blue highlights. The Other Huge difference is the Hook Hand. The movie version has a Left Hand Hook, while the Magazine Version is sporting the Hook on the Right Hand.
The last difference is on the skin and hair.
Movie Karg has Platinum Blond hair and a kind of undead flesh color for his skin.Magazine Karg's blond is a bit more yellowish and he has Evil Lyn levels of Jaundice.

Here's the thing: Getting the "As close to the Movie version without being the Movie Version" of Karg would be awesome (as seen with Gwildor and Blade) but I would trade Movie Accuracy for the sake of simply GETTING a MOTUC Compatible Karg.

Jan 17, 2015

The MOTUC Modulok is an amazing figure. The only flaw that it has is that the Torso doesn't pop off at the waist... and that he has less Y-Connectors than his vintage figure... if we wanted to nitpick.

Multibot is coming and he is supposed to have the capacity to pop off at the waist just like the vintage figure. In order to make a true Megabeast, we need a Modulok Torso that can pop-off at the Torso. So... here's a crazy idea: A Modulok Upgrade pak.
I have to admit that I was kinda inspired by another toyline.

YES, The Centurions were partly an inspiration for this idea. The other part of the idea is that there are some extra pieces floating around that could be used for Modulok.

Here's the idea: Modulok expansion pak.
We could use some of Modulok's basic parts (The Red legs with Monster feet should be included to help Normal Modulok owners to somewhat make a Filmation Modulok)
Also we could use Lizard Man's hands and feet on the insectoid modulok arms and legs... Maybe even the Mantenna legs.
More Y connectors.

The only new pieces would be:
-Torso that can detach at the crotch and has a hole on the back that you could attach pieces to.
-New crotch that can be attached to the Torso
-Wings
-Modified crotch for Mermista's mermaid tail.

That way we can have aquatic and aerial configurations for Modulok. (the Hole in the back is to attach a Y-Connector to plug in the wings.)

If Mattel wanted they could even toss a pair of new arms for Multibot that can use the extra plug in pieces we are supposed to have lying around thanks to the weapons packs. It would also serve as a nod to the 200X Multibot that was meant to be made out of a bunch of weapons.

The only thing going against this idea is that it "deviates from tradition", a.k.a. the infamous Nostalgia Trap.

Jan 16, 2015

This rant is a bit special (like the Matty reveal rants) where I write parts of it at different intervals and publish it when it's completed. As you can see in the CAPS LOCKED Title of the rant, this is a Boy/Girl Meets World rant. The reason for this rant is the January 16th GMW episode: Girl Meets Master Plan. Basically, Riley, the Topangaborn is trying to set up Cory's Other Wife with Maya's Mom.

Here comes the Rant BEFORE WATCHING THE EPISODE... My thoughts may change after watching the episode, or not.

I don't think that Forcing Shawn to be Maya's Stepfather is a great idea. Cory having an opposite gender Mini-Cory is one thing, but the opposite gender Mini-Shawn doesn't NEED Shawn in order to exist. We've seen all the episodes where Maya was basically a Girl Shawn WITHOUT having the Original Shawn around. It's already a bit too forced that the show has a Mini Cory, a Mini Eric/Morgan, a Mini Shawn, a Mini Minkus and a Piece of Cardboard that is supposed to be Mini Pangy!
Pairing Shawn with Mini Shawn's mom feels off. I'd rather have Shawn be the Mini Mr. Turner to the Mini Shawn... Since Cory is now Mini Feeny. Putting Shawn in the "father role" for Maya would reduce the need for Maya to rely on Mr. Matthews for advice. Also, Shawn cannot have a "Happy ending" if he wants to remain as a compelling character. He's supposed to be the Anti-Cory. This brings me to the Angela part I mentioned in the title.

Various people have been demanding Angela to return to Girl Meets World and marry Shawn.
That is a HORRIBLE Idea. Much worse than pairing Shawn with Maya's mom.
-Angela and Shawn broke up over 13 years ago. That's plenty of time to move on with their lives. If they didn't that's a bit unhealthy, don'tcha think?
-Angela didn't have a real connection to Cory and Topanga, therefore she is not really needed in Girl Meets World.
-If Shawn were to marry Angela, that would give Mr. Hunter even LESS Opportunities to be at the Matthews' residence, which means less Shawn in GMW.

The only possible positive that I see is that tying Shawn down with Maya's mom would mean that he COULD appear more often... Then again, we've seen Stuart Minkus only once and we have not seen Cardboard Cowboy's parents.

Now after watching the Episode here are my thoughts:

A few references to Angela... Expected and that's what Angela should stay as... A reference.
Cardboard Cowboy was somewhat useful.
The Katy/Shawn dynamic seemed a bit cliched with the whole arguing a lot because they both care about Maya.
I would like to see how this develops... Hopefully, if they are going with the whole Shawn = Maya's Stepfather, they need to not force the Shawn/Katy relationship.

I think I'm starting to see some similarities between Katy and Chet Hunter and that's not good!

Hopefully Chet's fate is not in the cards for Katy...

My thoughts of Angela being unneeded still stand. Same thing applies to Rachel, Eric's best friend Jason, Joey the Rat, or Frankie the Enforcer, etc. The only BMW characters who should appear in GMW are The Matthews (Allan, Amy, Eric, Josh, and Morgan) Mr. Feeny, and Shawn Hunter... Jack Hunter would be pushing it. The show is about Cory's daughter, not Cory. Even if GMW WAS about Cory, Angela is not needed, because of her somewhat distant relationship with Cory.

Based on the Three MK Figures I've seen by Mezco, the idea of Thundercats action figures seems appealing to me. HOPEFULLY Mezco will get the memo and make them in SEVEN Inches in order to be compatible with another toyline from another company... You know the one I'm talking about!

Just picture a MOTU vs Thundercats display (assuming the T-Cats are in scale with MOTUC) and you'll see why I'm feeling excited!

On the Other Hand, I have a few reasons to be scared.
The $65 DKR Batman with CLOTH CLOTHES comes to mind.

- Paying $65 for a Figure close to MOTUC Scale hurts... A Decent set of the CORE CORE characters will be more expensive than a MOTUC Sub.

-CLOTH CLOTHING at 1:12 or scales close to 1:12 doesn't look as good as it should. Mumm-ra's bandages come to mind.

So, let's hope they are closer to the MK Figures in cost than this Batman.

With that said, there is ONE THING that MEZCO needs to make sure happens is:
We HAVE to get the Following Figures:-Lion-O (w/Snarf)
-Panthro
-Tygra
-Cheetara
-Wilykat
-Wilykit
-Mumm-Ra: The Ever Living!
-Slithe
-Monkian
-Jackalman
-Vultureman
-Mumm-Ra Depowered

We get those twelve and everything else is gravy. I would have added Pumyra, Lynx-O and the Lazy Tygra Repaint, but requesting 15 figures can be a bit too much.

Now, since Mezco is not necessarily tied to the whole children's toys thing... Does this mean we can get the Naked Thundercats from the first episode?

We know about the possibility of a compatible scaled line with the 2016 rebranding. We kinda know about Neitlich's seemingly misogynistic attitude towards MOTU.

Think about it:
Evil Lyn= Depowered and sent to the future.
Sorceress = Dead
Teela = Next Sorceress of Grayskull and rumor has it the Castle explodes.
Queen Marlena = After Randor's death she is sent to Earth. (Remember that this is decades after Marlena disappeared and was most likely declared dead.)Adora/She-Ra = Becomes evil and fights an Older He-Man.

Then we have how most of the PoP Characters were tossed under another subscription to keep them off the main line.

We also have how he put up Huntara up against Masque (hoping that he would have won) or Mara against Darius and Tuskador.

It almost paints a pretty misogynistic pic of Mattel's former Manager of MOTU... Note that I'm not saying he IS a misogynist. I'm only saying that these few things, when looked at together can seem like there's a bit of misogyny involved.

Now, back to Nepthu, wasted slots and no Crita in 2015.
Club Filmation could have benefited of giving the Nepthu Slot to another character.
Masque is an obvious choice, given that Shokoti was there on that sub, but here's the thing. There were PLENTY of characters that Mattel could have used there for the sake of completion.
The already mentioned Masque, or my favorite Archaeologist, Melaktha could have used it.

Queen Elmora, while not AS Popular, she has a connection with Strongarm and the upcoming Lizard Man. Not to mention that Queen Elmora would have allowed Mattel to recoup some of the costs of Shadow Weaver's Unique Tooling.

Kittrina, a popular Cat Lady that I'm not a fan of her, but I can see why she is popular...
She would have required a lot of tooling, but that would have given us a furry female buck that could have been reused on an Ugly Harpy or a 200X Female Avionian.

Speaking of Avionians of the fairer sex. The most obvious character to use on that slot and "force" people into double dipping was Delora, with an Extra Hawke Head.

Or a bit more obscure Bowena. She's basically a stereotypical female Archer... (Think along the lines of a Gender Swapped Pre-Crisis Green Arrow... or a Gender Swapped Robin Hood).

Or if the Former BM actually cared about POP he could have tossed in Melog (Second form) which is pretty much the Magical She-Faker. This one, they could have made quite easily since all they needed was a new hairpiece and dress. The rest of her muddy body could have been achieved by paint and creative reuse of parts.

We could also mention the Xerxes looking Garn from Filmation, Negator, Game Master, Red Knight and many other characters that could have fit in that slot better than Nepthu and might have not even needed as much new tooling. Not to mention that SOME of these are a bit more memorable than Nepthu.

I know bitching about Spilled Milk solves nothing. Here's the thing:
Due to weird management choices, we are stuck with 2/3 of the New Adventures cast, a Hodgepodge of Filmation and 200X characters that WILL BE MIA by the end of 2015. With that said, the Rebranding means that we'll revisit SOME Familiar faces. Translation: those MIA Folks may be pushed back even further BECAUSE of the Rebranding. That's without mentioning vehicles, playsets and all the other stuff... This is what makes me nervouscited about 2016... (though I'm feeling a bit pessimistic about it.)

This next SDCC, MATTEL NEEDS TO WOW US MOTUC CONSUMERS IF they want to make 2016 happen!
They also need to avoid unwanted characters that were simply put on the roster, because the person in charge liked them.

Jan 13, 2015

I don't have MAD Customizing Skills... If you want to see those in action check out folks like Jin Saotome, Joe Amaro (with an R), Hunter Knight Customs, Joe Amato (with a T), Kevin Kosse and many others that do non-MOTUC stuff.

I'm a low level butcher. (Not having steady hands works against me.) I've done a bit of customizing before. Mostly repaints and in some cases Mild Part Swapping. I can see the potential in figures to make customs, even if I don't have the skills for it. Up until recently (few years ago), I didn't think very highly of Customizers. I thought of them as an evil even worse than Scalpers. I thought of them as Action Figure Butchers. Hence the Butcher references. The Customizer hate grew strong with me during the Marvel Legends era, especially around Wave VI when Every Customizer was butchering Phoenix and Deadpool to make other characters. (Phoenix, I got from a Scalper, but I never found DP.) Seeing custom after custom using figures that I was unable to find, made me angry... But that's not the point of this rant.

The reason I'm making this rant is because I recently bought some Third Party Casts of pieces compatible with MOTUC Figures. Won't be posting links to the sites because Third Party Casts can be considered a big no-no in some circles and I don't want them to get any unwanted attention.

Now, some of my repaints and slight part swaps have made it unto other reviews. (Ram Man, "200X" inspired Classics He-Man, mildly repainted Snout Spout, etc.)

Repainting a Demo-Man Tunic in a color more suited to Josh is pretty easy! It's low level stuff that any beginner can do. Repainting the whole body requires a bit more finesse than I didn't have in 2011 when I made this custom (Minus the Demo-Shirt)

But you get the idea. It's a mild part swap/ repaint, which it's still a low level thing. For something a bit more complicated, there's Humanoid faces... I HATE! HATE! HATE! painting those, but I have to do it if I want to improve.The next item in my list is something that Mattel SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED WITH THE FIGURE!! Not something that I had to get via a Third Party. I am, of course, talking about Keldor's Melty face with tons of Acid Burn!

This head seems very close to the 200X Exclusive Keldor, which I do not own, so I cannot compare it to the Cast.

The Cool thing about this head is that it was cast in translucent green. I gave it a(n intentionally) sloppy yellow coat in order to keep some areas in translucent green for two reasons:-It mimics the shading on Skeletor's skull and saves me time from painting it.
-It allows light to shine through. (It looks cool, like a glowing acid eating Keldor's flesh and stripping the bone.)'

Then I painted Keldor's face. There's 3 shades of Blue on his face to create levels of decomposition in the face. The one thing I hated painting with a passion was his eye. (Again, shaky hands.)All that it needed was some acid on the face on some of the painted areas. Using GITD paint, I now have acid burns that glow in the dark. I also gave the Translucent parts a wash with GITD paint diluted in water so it glows faintly in the dark.

Now this is stepping a bit out of my comfort zone, but to real customizers, this is low level stuff.

The moment that I TRULY gained a new appreciation for what they do was earlier today. I already have admired the awesome figures that they have made by destroying others.
I swapped the Feet on my MOTUC Skeletor with the Demo-Man feet.

I know, Part swaps are something on my Skill level, but not when you have to butcher the Skeletor Shin Piece to make the freaking Demo-Feet fit inside!! I spent way too much time cutting, sanding, cursing and other stuff in order to make the Demo-Feet fit inside the Skeletor shin. Holy crap! This is something I hope I won't have to do any time soon... But on the other hand now I have a Half Alcala mini Comic/Half 200X Skeletor!!

So, Customizers, all I can say is wow... you guys kick so much ass! I would need tons of practice to "level up" and MOTUC figures are a bit on the expensive side, so I think that I'll be forced to stay at the "Mild Repaint and begginer part swapper" level. Before I leave here's an idea for Mattel... 200X Head on BS Hordak makes him more different than Vintage Hordak... Just look at the pic! I have Officially removed Not-Quite Filmation Hordak from my shelf and put back the Toy Colors Hordak!

I also want to say that If Mattel had found a way to give us a 4-toed Skeletor, a Melting head for Keldor and a 200X head for Hordak, then I wouldn't have had the need to acquire these parts. (something something Not being a slave to vintage...) but if I hadn't gotten these parts, especially the feet for Skeletor, then I wouldn't have learned how hard Customizing can be when you're completely clueless! Once again, mad props to the folks who make art out of seemingly random figure body parts... Especially those who SCULPT NEW PARTS

Having all the years lined up will make it easier for 2016 when I check out the 2015 Roster.
Y'all seen the Format. If I own the Item, the grade will be in RED. If I missed/skipped the item, it'll be in BLUE. The evaluation on the year has nothing to do with the previous score I gave the Figure on its review (if I own said figure) I'm looking at general issues and how that figure plays in the grand scheme of things. That's why some figures that fared better on the ICFTTC will get lower grades here, or vice versa.

Two Bad: A-
I still stand by the notion that making Two-Bad a "punishment" for non-subscribers was a dick move.
This guy would have sold pretty well, especially for Customizers who would have wanted as many Two-Bad parts as possible available to make Tuvar and Bhaddra.

Glimmer: C+
As everyone who has listened me on Council of the First Ones, or read my rants, Y'all know that I am obsessed with Glimmer, mai waifu... Sadly, that bumbling designer and douchenozzle, Ruben screwed her up. Giant ass pizza slice codpiece, non-GITD Staff. The Horsemen kinda screwed her up because she no longer looks like The Great Rebellion's jailbait. She looks like an Adult Glimmer. Then there's the Marble. She got one new hand for it when she could have easily reused the Spellcasting/Claw hand and a Pink reuse of Castaspella's blast. Don't get me wrong I ♥ Glimmer, but she is less than perfect.

Modulok: S
Yes, I'm using the Japanese Grade S to go BEYOND A+, because he is THAT Awesome. While I'm calling him Beyond Perfect, which he kinda is when compared to other figures. Compared to the vintage figure he has a few issues (Less Y connectors than his vintage counterpart and the inability to split at the Torso.) Aside those two things, he is perfect. I can refresh him with a different configuration and make the Horde Display feel renewed (especially now that we're only missing Dragstor and MultiBot)

Hydron: D+
Poor, poor Hydron! Tell us where the mean old Ruben touched you! All jokes aside, Design dropped the ball with Hydron and it shows. New Adventures characters have a stigma of suckitude that stems from our childhoods and how Mattel changed He-Man to some lame Star Wars ripoff. While I learned to love NA thanks to figures like Flipshot and Optikk, Hydron makes it harder to sell NA as something cool. The Puffy vest, The Air Hose of his SCUBA tank covering up his eyes, the lack of a Second head do not help the SCUBA DIVER IN SPACE to look cool. He's like the Stratos of New Adventures. Brings so little to the table, but is a core character.

The Unnamed One: D
I'm being a bit fair with the UNO. He should get an F, but his cool sculpt helps his grade a little.
Neitlich's game of hiding the UNO helped generate the hype that was UNO's downfall. On a line where the Heroes and Villains are so "Black and white" having "The Ultimate Evil" be "an ORKO" can be a bit off-putting. Then there's the whole Orko = Accessory. UNO, a slightly larger Orko = $25 Figure... Exactly.

Blade: B
The First Movie Figure suffered a lot. One of his swords was TOO FREAKING BIG for his hands, then the lack of Paint Applications on his accessories hurt him. Other than that he is a pretty sweet figure... that you have to get third party weapons for him to work properly.

Scorpia: A-
Another Filmation Character. you can see the love on the Horsemen's Sculpt. The attention to detail is fantastic! The little bumps on her scorpion parts kick her up a notch and sets an example on how Filmation Characters should be "Classicized". If she had gotten a Second Accessory, she would have
been a bit better.

Battle Lion: A
He's nothing more than Battle Cat With 200X Armor, but a Lion Head and Tail. If you're not into 200X, but are into POP, I have one thing to say: Pink paint, lots of it...

Extendar: C-
If you thought Hydron was bad, wait till you get to see Extendar. The flaws on him make Hydron LOOK a lot better. He has Fat Armor, more obvious when unstretched. Design screwed up his forearms. The Peg should have been in the Forearm and the hole should have been in the bracer in order to preserve the original length of the forearm. Ruben made it backwards and this forced a much longer forearm. While the Leg issue makes the legs less vintage accurate, it KINDA makes sense, except when one pulls off the boot of anpther figure, you can see that the Peg is not on the boot, but on the shin. Now we have the Elephant in the Room: The Belt. The Safety issues excuse was pure Bull. He scores slightly higher than Hydron because he has accessories and is a bit more cooler than "The Scuba guy".

Flogg: C
The Mutant Leader finally graces MOTUC He has a bunch of old parts combined with a few new parts that ALMOST give us a faithful version of the Mutant Leader. He is based on the slightly more "vicious" look of his toy than the bumbling buffoon from the Cartoon. He fares a bit lower thanks to the reuse of the Hordak feet. He needed some new feet badly... And some new shins too! Then the Accessories. His "Fishing Rod" is a hassle to display him with and the other Accessory is a not so great interpretation of the Filmation Power Sword.NA Skeletor:F
Overlord of Evil goes to Space and once again, Ruben drops the ball. Ruben and Ball Dropping seems to be a common theme... How is it possible that he's doing rookie Mistakes when he's been working for Mattel for over 10 years!! Bloated, GLUED ON ARMOR even though it has tabs that make it obvious that it was meant to be removable. Backwards Shoulders that cannot be fixed since they made the pegs to plug the biceps in different sizes. Lack of paint on the cybernetics on his body, gummy hands that can barely hold the new staff. Super thick neck overlay that makes it nearly impossible to display any other head aside the normal NA Head. The only saving grace is the Fakeminator head.

Flutterina: B
Mrs. Clamp Champ is a well done figure, but a bit vanilla. That's all I have to say about her.

Rio Blast: C-
Ruben Strikes back! Fat Armor, Chest flap not closing properly, you name it, Rio has it. He's not as bad as Extendar, but he's getting there. Also, no paint on his backpack.

Eldor: A-
The Final Missing 80s figure from the Powers of Grayskull sub-line. Here the Horsemen went out of their way to make the Old Man in a Hoodie cooler. The only real issues with him are the gummy Staff and the Monkey lips.

Tunglashor: A
My Favorite Snakeman. He is awesome and the only REAL issue with him is the reduced Articulation on his feet.Arrow: C
He's OK-ish, but a vanilla release. He needed some Oomph! Damn those hard to remove saddlebags!!

Mermista: B
I've been waiting for her, ever since Clawful. It's figures like this that make me question the $25 for Madame Razz, and UNO, or the $20 for Loo-Kee/Kowl pack and the $35 for Gwildor. One issue that seems to be common with Mermista figures is the warped right foot. Some have reported the glitter on her tail falling off.

Gwildor: B-
$35... For a Small Sized Figure. Smells like a rip-off! The extra cosmic key looks nice, but feels a bit unneeded. I kinda wish they had made the Normal Cosmic Key to have a removable handle so we could have the MOVIE styled key!

Now for the Non-Club Eternia Items:

Kowl and Loo-Kee: C
While these two are not Full Price, they feel like a rip-off. They're not bigger than a Blind Bag Hasbro MLP MINI toy. Having them is cool, because they complete the POP sets. Seriously? $20 for them and only ONE Stand and no accessories kinda stings.Goat Man: B+
The Traveling Con Item was the Sole representative from the Golden Books. A rather easy figure to make since it's mostly made out of shared parts. Some of the new pieces are super cool as well. Oooh! That Hammer is FREAKING A-MAZING!! Then add the Emerald Staff of Avion (a bit funkier than the Filmation Staff of Avion) and you can put Goat Man into the cooler-looking characters (and help Stratos be less boring).

Filmation Hordak: C
Another Figure that felt a bit of a rip-off. Neitlich dropped the ball here. (for once someone other than Ruben is doing the Ball Dropping) An Extra arm, Imp and the unneeded 200X Staff made it $30. Other than that He's OK. He needed the Head and Armor to be a TRUE Filmation Hordak.

Double Trouble: F+
The "Man-E-Faces" of Princess of Power... So, for ONCE Mattel tried to do the Action Feature and they failed... HORRIBLY!! There were better ways to implement it, but Ruben chose the easiest and laziest. The Horde Crossbow was a sweet idea! Right now the only thing that can SAVE Double Trouble is getting a Customizer to make two custom heads that the helmet and hair can plug into And to cannibalize a MOTUC Figure to make a frankenfigure that fits the MOTUC aesthetic better.

Madame Razz: B-
Another figure that makes me wonder WHY are we paying FULL PRICE for these? It's amazing that we have her, but part of me wishes she had come with something else. She barely reaches a figure's crotch and only came with broom. She needed SOMETHING EXTRA...

Entrapta: B
The Final Girl Horde toy in the line has finally arrived. She's a nice figure but she has no accessory of her own. (I stole She-Ra's 2 Combaxes to give her something.) She's rather well done, surprisingly.

Sweet Bee: C+
The new Etherian Loli has arrived. The Head Sculpt (especially the hair) did create some issues with here. Then the reduced articulation and sloppy paintjobs in her weapon made this figure a bit more disappointing. Not to mention the whole "no DoS" of her to "punish" non subscribers. Mattel lost potential sales here, because PEOPLE COULD HAVE ARMY BUILT BEE PEOPLE with those helmets!!

NA She-Ra: A-
The Figure that Former MOTU Manager, Toyguru thought would be the MOST Controversial figure of 2014. Having a Variant meant that Perfuma would end up as a 2015 figure, which scared POP fans. Now unto She-Ra herself. She had some mild issues on the head. Something looks off. The quality of the plastic on her accessories (holster and gun) seems to be a bit off.

Spinnerella: C-
The Big Ticket Item of the POP sub. Another figure that feels Overpriced. Ruben cut Corners and... Guess what happened. He dropped the ball! The one figure that needed rotating forearm bracers. I must say that the Hair Piece was a stroke of genius (sadly, I can't remove it on mine unless I want to risk ruining the figure). They really should have used cloth tassels for her... Mossman is flocked, Grizzlor has hairy fur, Megator has tooted hair. Having Spinnerella with cloth tassels would have helped her look a bit better.

Battle Ram with Man-at-Arms: A-for the vehicle B for MAA
I feel it's overpriced, even without the extra cost of the THIRD MAA Variant. The alternate head for the War Sled is pretty nifty. The Ram itself looks awesome, but the stress marks on the sled worry me a little.

Jan 10, 2015

I am not a fan of the Guy in Yellow who partakes in a game of Tug of War against He-Man and vanishes when Skeletor shows up with the Battle Bones. I would totally take an Etherian Rebel Josh, Songster, Chef Allen and Crackers the Cl... OK I can't finish this statement with a straight face! I'll just take Etherian Rebel Josh and Songster before Tug of War dude. He's WAY DOWN BELOW the pecking order... Lower than the Scientists of Primus AND the Son of He-Man folks.

Now how can I make this dud of a dude cooler? He is there and when Danger arises, he vanishes... Almost like a certain Cowardly Prince, or a Former Horde Force Captain...
How many Characters have Secret Identities in MOTU and are not tied to the Powers of Grayskull?

The answer is One: By the Power of Logistics! That Style's Retired!! The Mary Sue known as The Mighty Spector, created by Jakks Pacific's very own Scott Neitlich, formerly of Mattel.

Y'all already know my love/hate relationship between Specky Wecky and myself. This has very little to do with that. Now think about this:
The guy is John Spector, Former Palace Guard Turned Time Traveler when he Accidentally ended up in the Future.

He is wearing civilian clothing and he's rocking some long hair. If A spray-on tan can make Adam and He-Man look Different, a Long wig on a Time Traveling Lt. Toyguru would make him look different enough from the present time Lt. TG. Now it's a shame that no one at Mattel back then (Talking about ♠ here) didn't think of this when choosing a driver for the Battle Ram.

Read the Description of the Battle Ram... Almost sounds like a TARDIS... So, who's the Perfect Pilot for a Time Machine?
The guy with Plenty of SEX on his wrist, of course! But that's a wasted opportunity rant for another time. Back to the Tug of War event.

The way I see it is that Spector, thanks to time travel and experiences that he's seen in his adventures (and ensuring he ends up in the Future ) decided to test himself against THE MAN himself... He-Man in his prime.
Now, he has seen the event of the Battle Bones WITHOUT the Time Agent's interference and He-Man beats the Heroic Warriors horribly, which causes Skeletor to defeat He-Man in combat and nearly destroy Eternia. Luckily for him, that Tug Of War Competition is NOT a fixed point in time, so he could alter the event by being there. By competing in the event, he was able to withstand He-Man's strength and helped the Heroic warriors to stand long enough until Skeletor came and captured them. This action is what gives He-Man a break and is able to defeat the Overlord of Evil. Mission Complete, Timeline is fixed and Spector can return home.

Before I get a "Spector wasn't invented back then! It's just a coincidence that the 'Other Warrior' vanishes after tugging." I have to say that it's obvious that Spector didn't exist back then, BUT it's a nice way to give him some validity as a character. (Something that I know many oppose because Neitlich) Now think about it... The guy simply vanishes. Who can easily vanish like that? Spector.
It all makes sense if you BELIEVE in Spector. Think about it, who better than a Time Traveler to modify the Battle Ram to jump through time and Space. If we're to believe that the Earlier Mini Comics are kinda canon, then we must accept that SOME of Duncan's "inventions" are simply Salvaged Technology that Duncan has made somewhat operational and that some, in this case the Battle Ram might have some Black Boxes that could only be triggered if certain conditions are met. (An Authorized user operating the vehicle at a certain time, for example) So, in a way the Battle Ram could kinda be a Spectormobile. Sorry for the Tangent, but all the pieces fall in place if we accept that Spector has been tampering with the Timeline in order for self-preservation disguised as altruistic desires and following the Royal Family's desires loyally.

Now to make things better for Mattel, Tug of War Spector would have nearly Zero New Tooling. The main thing stopping the Spector = Tug of War guy is basically Mattel not wanting to "immortalize" a Jakks employee in Plastic for the 4th Time (DCUC got a Nite-Lik figure)

I believe THIS is the only way I could truly accept The guy in Yellow who Participates in a Tug of War as a viable character in MOTUC, or whatever the 2016 name for the line is.

Dammit! I forgot to take a pic of My Kitteh Army playing with her Tassels!I am of course, Talking about Spinnerella, the second most progressive Character in MOTUC. Nettossa is the first one and they're lesbians in a relationship and they love each other... So, the Masters of Misogyny and Racism have shown some social justice by having an interracial lesbian couple.

So, Spinnerella, aside from her implied status as Nettossa's better half, Spinnerella is an overpowered character who nearly destroyed the whispering woods by going Taz on it. This means she was underused. Then her Vintage toy was a rarity.
So, what have we learned?

Spinerrella Spins and was a very rare figure. Filmation kinda made her seem like a lesbian, but to be fair, even Bow, Bastion of Heterosexuality seemed a bit effeminate in Filmation.
She finally got made in Classics. Now here comes the bad part. I got a crappy Spinnerella. I won't seen her back to Matty because I don't trust Digital River. As you can see on the pic on the right, her peg won't fit in her forearm. I will not remove the vintage crown off her head Because the hair seems to have fused due to the paint or something. and the base color for her hair is blue and painted Lavender...

Articulation:
Basic 2.0 female Articulation, in theory. In execution a lot of it is either blocked or useless.
Her Bracers have rigid plastic tassels that make any other pose except having the forearms go parallel to the ground look ridiculously ugly! Her hair blocks her arm articulation, the weight of her hair kinda hinders her head articulation.
Then her skirt, which is a bunch of tassels HINDERS HER LEG ARTICULATION... No Spinning Bird Kick poses for Spinnerella. Heck she can't even pull off a Tatsumakisenpukyaku!! Oh yeah! MEGA LOOSE Ankles... Guess who keeps falling down, down, down!3.0

Paint and sculpt:
The sculpt is awesome (aside the snafu on my figure) The paint... $30 for sloppy paints everywhere... I just noticed her left bracer's silver bled into my figure's forearm almost reaching the elbow. Some silver slop on the left tassels, blue paint blobs on the purple tassels in the forearms and messed up purple paint bleeding into the blue tassels on her skirt. Then there's the paint chipping off her hair... If there was some sound effect that I could use to describe the paints on my Spinnerella.2.5Accessories:

Let's start with the Biggest failure in the Accessory department: The POP Shield.
If you thought I thought that the Catra Combwhip was bad, how about the POP Shield that Spinnerella CANNOT USE due to her (way)hard(er than cloth) Plastic Tassels. But even if she had gotten Cloth Tassels, the way her bracer is designed; it won't work with a POP Shield. So, Once again let's roll that beautiful fail horn music!

The Other Accessory is the Spear of the Goddess repainted in a very Toyetic color scheme. I know that the Horsemen tried to make it match SOME of Spinnerella's colors, but it feels a bit off. And if you clicked on the link of the Staff Piece, you know what Spinnerella WITH the staff remind me of.

4.0

Overall:
Spinnerella gets a 3.17 as her final score. Most of the damage to her score comes from me getting a very crappy Spinnerella, but that wouldn't change the overall score by much. (roughly half a point up on the overall score)

By He, I mean Ruben Martinez (and to an extent the Design team). Now don't get me wrong. It's cool that I finally own a Spinnerella, but I feel that Mattel could have done so much with this figure.Mattel could have made the forearms to rotate to allow for better usage of her articulation. They could have made her skirt removable by the belt and give us an extra belt with the tassels floating as if she was spinning. OR... CLOTH TASSELS for her skirt AND forearms. As much as I hate cloth items, Spinnerella is the only POP Figure that NEEDED cloth items and is not Nettossa, because Nettossa needed a cloth cape that could work as a net. It wouldn't be that off since Mossman and Santa KG have flock, Grizzlor has "Hairy fur" that you can comb... Megator has rooted hair.Missed opportunities, man!

One spins, the other traps... Or they would've If Mattel hadn't screwedthem up!